UF President Bernie Machen stressed the importance of raising the academic standards for the Bright Futures Scholarship and implementing new state taxes for education during a town hall forum hosted by IRHA, the Inter-Residence Hall Association, for on-campus residents Thursday night.
Machen said increasing taxes would help the state tremendously, citing the $1 cigarette tax being disputed in Tallahassee that would raise more than $800 million in a year.
"We're not over-taxed," Machen said to the group of about 30 people who gathered for the question-and-answer session inside Yulee Hall's lounge. "We're under-resourced."
Skeet Surrency, a UF organic and sustainable crop production senior, asked Machen if he would sign a petition asking for a one-cent increase to Florida's sales tax to help fund education.
"I'll sign it" Machen said.
Surrency said Machen will likely sign the petition publicly next week.
During the forum Machen defended tuition increases and said, if it were up to him, he'd make anyone pay tuition who could afford it.
"Bright Futures does not allow true excellence to be awarded," said Machen, adding he believes the scholarship is heavily flawed and should take into account need-based aid as well as have higher qualification standards.
Students also took the opportunity during the meeting to voice their concerns about looming budget cuts.
UF sophomore Caitlin Plowfield asked Machen about recent cuts to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' religion department and how students who were in the major currently would be affected.
"I wanted to give a face to the questions being asked, especially in the religion department's case," said Plowfield, who is a religion major. She was reassured by Machen that although they would not be letting in new students to the major under the college's current budget cut proposal, she would be able to continue and graduate.
Discussion also centered around the Board of Trustees' new focus on graduate education and how it would affect undergraduates at UF.
"We're not backing off undergraduate education," said Machen, who is in favor of reducing the undergrad population at UF. "We're just putting a ring around it to make it more special."
At the end of the forum, Jonathan Sheffield, Jr. president of IRHA, awarded Machen with a special IHRA pin and said it was rare for a university president to meet with students once, let alone five times in one school year.
"If your only information is from the Alligator then you're not getting the whole connection," Machen said. "So these forums are a very valuable and important link for me and the kids on campus."
